COVID-19 wiped out 15 years of progress in reducing hunger globally. Investing USD 33 billion more per year can reverse this trend and end hunger for good.

A world without hunger is possible, but it is time to take action! Governments cannot do it alone.

More private sector investment is needed, so we are looking to the private sector to do their part in contributing—and also inspiring other players to act. The ground-breaking Ceres2030 report—reinforced by the Program of Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation (PARI) and The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021 (SOFI) reports—emerged from the UN Food Systems Summit’s Coalition of Action for Zero Hunger and draws a 10-year roadmap to reverse the downward hunger spiral.

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The Zero Hunger Private Sector Pledge Launch will welcome the first champions. We will hear how they are partnering with governments, donors, and global and local institutions to drive more effective private investments and how their pledges will contribute to national food systems pathways.

The pledge is being supported by a network of implementing organizations and partners, including the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Grow Africa, Grow Asia, the World Benchmarking Alliance, the World Food Programme, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

For further information on this initiative please consult the related project page.

WATCH - Livestream of the meeting.

Tentative Speakers:

• Agnes Kalibata, President, AGRA and UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to the 2021 Food Systems Summit
• David Beasley, Executive Director, WFP 
• Peter Bakker, President and CEO, WBCSD 
• Qu Dongyu, Director-General, FAO 
• Caroline Keelings, CEO, Keelings 
• Nnaemeka Ikegwounu, Cold hubs/The Smallholders Foundation 
• H.E. Ambassador Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission (rep by Dr Godfrey Bahiigwa)
• Thierry Nohasiarivelo, Coordinator, SBN Madagascar
• HE Mr Désiré M’zinga Birihanze, Minister of Agriculture of DRC

Date / Time: Wednesday, September, 21 from 10:00 - 11:30 EST / 16:00 - 17:30 Geneva / CET / 15:00 - 16:30 UK time

Interpretation in English- French and Spanish will be available.

The event agenda can be found here. 

The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit is taking place in the context of the climate crisis and exacerbated global food insecurity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the world is facing these challenges and a global response will be needed, developing countries—and in particular African countries—are dealing with an even more extreme situation. Their development dynamics and needs involve an increase in food consumption and production to address the nutritional requirements of their populations in an approach that also ensures the environmental sustainability and resilience of their agricultural practices. Based on developed country experience, there is no evidence that such a transition could be achieved by relying on market economic forces alone, especially if the social inclusiveness of the process has to be guaranteed. Therefore, policy pathways must be identified and implemented that favour synergies and limit trade-offs within the nexus between climate change, food systems, and nutrition.

Speakers

• Francine Picard, Senior Policy Advisor and Partnerships Lead, IISD 
• Carin Smaller, Director of Agriculture, Trade and Investment, IISD 
• Dr. Andrew Kwasari, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Office of the Vice President of Nigeria
• Christel Weller-Molongua, Director of Rural Development and Agriculture Division in the Global Department at GIZ 
• Dr. Felix Phiri, Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS of the Ministry of Health in Malawi  
• Willem Olthof, Deputy Head of Unit, DEVCO C1 - Rural Development, Food Security, Nutrition, European Commission  

This session explains how we can influence consumption patterns through policy interventions that will lead to better environmental and nutritional outcomes in three countries—Malawi, Ethiopia, and Nigeria—in order to identify policy roadmaps to sustainable food system transformation. Specifically, by building on the Ceres2030 literature review and cost modelling exercise, this research supports analytical work to strengthen the evidence base for climate-smart nutrition interventions in the context of a sustainable food system. This aligns with the overarching transformative theme of the UN Food Systems Summit.

The purpose of this parallel session is to present the results from the country case studies, together with country focal points from the three countries: the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria, the Ministry of Public Health in Malawi, and the Federal Ministry of Health in Ethiopia. We aim to develop joint ownership of the final recommendations and enhance the utilization of the research in the Food Systems Summit, dialogues, and long-term country-level strategies.

Deep Dives Into the Nexus of Food Systems, Climate Change, and Nutrition in Malawi, Ethiopia, and Nigeria will provide examples of how to develop a country-level roadmap for food systems transformation that could serve as a blueprint for other countries and that is based on the best available evidence, economic modelling, and a deep engagement with national-level stakeholders working together with experts.

This event is the result of a collaboration between the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the European Union, the Malawi Ministry of Public Health, and the Office of the Vice President of Nigeria.

Interpretation in French and in English will be available.

Agricultural lending is considered "high risk" by formal financial institutions, as farmers are more vulnerable to changes in weather, rainfall levels, pests, and infestations, as well as price fluctuations. As a result of these perceived and actual risks, loans for smallholder farmers require high rates of collateral. This situation is exacerbated for rural women, who often do not inherit and possess assets or properties that can be accepted by formal financial institutions as conventional forms of collateral.

This virtual dialogue of the Parliamentarians Actions for Gender Equality and Resilient Food Systems in Response to Covid-19 series brought together parliamentarians, financial institutions, and other main stakeholders to discuss the importance of developing alternative approaches for risk sharing and management that can increase women’s access to finance through alternative collateral requirements.

This dialogue sought to:

1) Raise awareness on the specific constraints and challenges faced by rural women in accessing finance along with their interlinkages with rural poverty and food insecurity, as well as potential opportunities to ensure women’s financial inclusion.

2) Share existing public policies and strategies in the African region to develop nonconventional collateral approaches targeting rural areas, in order to enhance the capacity of parliamentarians to engage with financial institutions and other stakeholders to strengthen national financial markets through the promotion and adoption of regulatory and legislative frameworks.

3) Promote an exchange of knowledge, experiences, and good practices among parliamentarians, international organizations, financial institutions, women's organizations and other relevant stakeholders on specific measures and approaches to promote rural women’s access to finance.

This was the fifth virtual dialogue in the Parliamentarians' Actions for Gender Equality and Resilient Food Systems in Response to COVID-19 series. It was held on June 29, 2021, from 15.30 to 18.00 CEST.

It was part of a series of dialogues organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Women in Law & Development in Africa (WiLDAF) and Oxfam as part of their policy support to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Network of Parliamentarians on Gender Equality and Investments in Agriculture and Food Security. The objective of the series is to enhance the role of African parliamentarians in mitigating the gender-differentiated impacts of COVID-19 on food systems.

Watch the virtual dialogue's full recording

Assista à íntegra do diálogo virtual em língua portuguesa

Related resources 

Women and Finance: Enabling Women’s Economic Empowerment

Women's Financial Inclusion: Closing the Gender Gap

Financial Inclusion for Women's Economic Empowerment

In Uganda, Can Cows Help Close the Credit Gap? 

The main goals of this virtual training workshop are to help government officials understand the legal and policy risks as well as potential benefits of different business models in agriculture, with a focus on large-scale agribusiness investments—while at the same time applying the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (CFS-RAI) to better analyze the legal tools used.

The regional focus of Eastern and Southern Africa will facilitate peer-to-peer learning and showcasing of champions in the region, as well as sharing of regional best practices for responsible agricultural investment. 

This training workshop will seek to enhance participants' awareness on:

• The relationship between global, regional, and national legal frameworks for responsible investments in agriculture.
• Situating the CFS-RAI as one possible best-practice framework to promote fair, balanced, and equitable legal tools in the agricultural sector, hence aligning national laws and policies with these principles to achieve national and regional development objectives.
• The opportunities and risks posed by large-scale agribusiness investments and the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in agriculture to promote responsible agricultural investment.
• The opportunities, risks, and trade-offs from different business models and incentives for investment in agriculture. This includes agricultural growth poles, public-private joint venture agreements, concessions, public-private partnerships, and the use of voluntary sustainability standards to help smallholder farmers access global value chains.
• Best practices to improve negotiation outcomes for responsible investments in agriculture and food systems, including national strategies, models and templates; institutional arrangements, and cost-benefit analysis to achieve development objectives.

It will be held from June 28 to July 1, 2021.

This event is made possible through guidance and support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Support was also provided by IISD's programme on Promoting Sustainable Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East Africa Community (EAC).

This meeting is by invitation only.